Festival "There will be games" is a multi-day celebration where players can try out game demos, interact with developers, watch streams, and learn about games coming out in Steam. Usually Steam holds three festivals every year: in February, June and October
Excerpted from Steamworks documentation
A little about.
Although this blog is my first on this topic, I am still well aware that you have most likely already seen either a selection of games from the festival from Stepan Peskov in the “Front Page” section, or one of the blogs from users Dexit86, alados or BalrogKolyan. This is precisely the reason for choosing this name for the blog: its essence is the same. And in the future this will play into my hands, since it will be enough to just change the month and year! Hmm.
Well, one important nuance, which I ask you to close your eyes to: screenshots taken from the pages of games in Steam. The reason for this incident is simple: I simply didn’t do them, because I didn’t initially plan to start this blog. Besides, in any case, they cope with the task of showing the appearance of the game. But nevertheless, if anything: comments are open!
Now that more or less important nuances have been outlined, we can move on to the main part. Enjoy your acquaintance!
Metroidvanias
Roguelikes
Retro style
Adventures
Visual novels
Lovecraft style
Rhythm games
Point-and-Click’s
Turn-Based Tactics
Platformers
Green Zone
Yellow Zone
Red Zone
I don’t know how it happened, but I have a whole bingo of metroidvanias in anime style, where the player controls a female character. Moreover, each of these games boasts both interesting and/or pleasant visuals and sound, which do not cause me any complaints. However, it would be hard to call their gameplay similar, so at least one game from this group will most likely interest you.
First in line will be Grim Guardians: Demon Purge. This game is very much in the spirit of the classic games in the series Castlevania both stylistically and gameplay. However, there is Grim Guardians one interesting feature that sells it twice: cooperative. So if you have a reliable partner, take a closer look at this game. But consider it for a single playthrough.
Let’s put it this way: there is a high probability of not getting enough testing and/or pleasure from completing it due to large concessions for the player, even on high difficulty. I’ll give you the boss situation as an example, but before that I’ll give you a little background information for context.
And while exploring the castle, this gameplay mechanic works very well, because if you ruin the second one with your crooked hands, you will lose a point from the attempt counter. And such punishment spurs fear of loss, forcing the player to play carefully and thoughtfully. But this doesn’t work on bosses, since not only are the checkpoints literally right in front of the boss and you don’t risk getting there even more damaged, but the bosses themselves do not fully restore their health points, allowing the player not only to learn patterns without problems, but also not to lose attempts, endlessly pumping out a defeated partner without any problems.
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder, in comparison with the previous game, it is much more like modern metroidvanias: the enemies are thicker and their number in the room is fixed; leveling tree as a reference to Path of Exile; using the heroine’s entire arsenal not only to destroy enemies, but also to pass rooms, etc.d. etc.n. So I recommend this game if you like more thoughtful and slower gameplay with an intriguing plot.
However, in Gestalt I was confused only by two points. First: the presence of two dodges assigned to diametrically different buttons on the gamepad. Moreover, these buttons perform a fixed action for them: LT for rolling back and B for rolling forward. I understand that this is difficult, but. Why couldn’t it be possible to make context-dependent dodges and hang them on LT and RT??!
The second is the battle with the final boss. I confess, I remembered that the heroine can only sit down after seeing a GIF on the game page Steam, but, nevertheless, this further raises the question, which sounds nothing more than “why does the heroine take damage from the beam during a roll, which has invulnerability frames?"Apart from everything else, the boss himself is quite stuffy: first you need to remove a noticeable strip of energy shield, and only then start lowering his life bar until his protection returns. And this is not to mention the fact that it is also fixed for some time, not reacting to energy-removing shots!
Start any conversation about Rusted Moss First of all, it is necessary from the main gameplay gimmick, whose name is a hook with an elastic rope. Almost all platforming in the game is based on it, including boss battles. For this reason, how quickly you can master this tool will depend not only on the amount of health you lose, but also, in principle, on the very fact of completing the game.
Otherwise, this is a pretty good Metroidvania, which I don’t have any particular complaints about. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you read Rusted Moss, fortunately the demo version has not disappeared anywhere. And, most likely, it will not disappear, since it was possible to play it long before the festival.
Dragon Bell: XI – this is a Chinese clone Hollow Knight. Not without its own gameplay features in the form of the heroine pulling her hand towards enemies to knock out the resources necessary for treatment from them, but nevertheless the visuals and the emphasis on the platform part shine through the object of inspiration too much. And I wouldn’t call it something bad, the way it’s played DragonBell It’s nice, but I can’t rule out that this could be a serious disadvantage for you.
And here’s the first one Imposter list – Elypse. And, to be honest, I would have shoved him into another group if the description of this game didn’t include the word Metroidvania. In addition, this is a good way to introduce you to a kind of representative of what I call "yellow zone". To understand the point: games in this category may have interesting ideas, gameplay or visual style, but the number of problems does not cause any desire to recommend them for review, or simply the time spent was not enough for a final verdict. It is for these reasons that I do not exclude the possibility that you might like these games. Simple reasons for at least mentioning them, right??
Let’s go back to Elypse. The problems with this game can only be described as an "unpolished concept". The gameplay in it relies heavily on the character movement system and platforming, which is expressed, in addition to level design, in the presence of dash and shooting, allowing you to lock in the air to choose a direction. But due to the large size of the rooms, be prepared to “sit out” at control points. Yes, to complete them, no complex sequences of actions are required, but at an early stage you have to learn everything by preliminary reconnaissance with a lot of trial and error, since all the obstacles are off the screen.
But here you also need to fight with enemies. They, of course, fly off with one shot, but. The problem is that the hero too. One random poke from an obstacle or enemy is enough to send you straight to the control point. Although they are distributed in reasonable numbers, they are not always and not everywhere.
And also add here the absence of time dilation while fixating in the air, without which shooting enemies, unless you instantly throw a projectile at them, will most likely send the hero to the control point. And I’m also silent about the need to make a dash to reload the shooting function, which sounds interesting on paper, but in practice with the “features” described above causes discomfort and indignation. So thanks but no thanks, Elypse not for me!
Although this group does not have the same incredible coincidence as the previous one, the very fact that the games presented in it belong to this genre still strongly connects them in my eyes to each other, even despite the significant differences in visual style and game mechanics. So if you don’t like 2D, then there is also 3D.
Oh, well, I’ll again highlight in advance the fact that the visual and sound components of most of the games presented in this group do not cause any rejection and/or irritation during playthrough.
Oblivion Override is a cheerful, but quite standard slasher in type Dead Cells, where among the interesting things there is a world and leveling up according to the classic system “of three options to choose from”, where you need to knock out passive and active skills of different costs for yourself. I didn’t see meta progression in the demo, so I can’t say anything special about it.
But here’s what I can say for sure: the hero’s movement feels as if it was made using the method of copy-pasting pieces of code from free lessons on the Internet. Although, the longer I think about it, the more it seems that the hero’s high sensitivity and agility are to blame for everything. It’s a pity I can’t check my guess anymore, the demo version was removed after collecting all the feedback from players for further optimization.
And since I mentioned optimization: the demo version had a small but quite significant problem in the form of a crash after death, which threw you back to the very beginning. I’m not sure whether the hands of the developers or my weak laptop are to blame for this, but the fact remains: the third time I didn’t want to run it anymore.
However, on my wish list Oblivion Override I flew away anyway because I was interested in the setting. And by the time of release, I believe that the problem with crashes will definitely be fixed.
Every time you see a company in the publishers/developers of a game Alawar, I sincerely express my extreme surprise. Their activities very rarely appear in the information field, and it’s special to keep an eye on them. It’s probably about time. In any case, from Alawar We are waiting for a new game called Wall World And.
This is literally Dome Keeper with a modified coordinate axis and reskin of the fixed dome into the moving fur. In addition, it is necessary to extract resources not from one deep and wide mine, but from many unrelated to each other. In addition, meta-progression currency is obtained from each dug block, thereby allowing the player to quickly upgrade the characteristics of a combat robot and crawl along an endless wall for longer, studying its biomes and looking for areas of interest with lore notes.
I have no particular complaints about Wall World did not arise, so the game quietly flew into my wish list.
ArcRunner – mechanically standard third-person shooter with co-op for up to three people. Of any gameplay features, one can only highlight the peculiar mechanics of, as I call it, “resonance”. To describe it succinctly, this is the mechanics of receiving any bonuses if there is a character’s body improvement indicated on the weapon picked up from enemies/chests. I wouldn’t dare call it vital, since all these significant increases are not particularly felt, but to call it pleasant – yes.
But what is felt very strongly is the choice of class. Unlike my friend who tried to complete the demo on the Soldier, I did solo runs on the Assassin and. I declare with full responsibility that this class is only suitable for cooperative play. Going invisible without being able to shoot or hit while it’s active is garbage. This might work in PvP, but not in PvE. And I’m still silent about the disgusting implementation of his katana.
I dare to make a bet before the game’s release: in a squad of two people, the better option would be to take a Soldier and an Engineer, which is not available in the demo version, than an Assassin. I will, of course, give absolutely nothing! Hmm.
Dust & Neon is an isometric looter shooter in the wild west setting with a dash of. Yes, they just threw robots there and said “And that’ll do,” after which they simply continued development. This is by no means a minus, I just really want to call this setting something in one word, but calling it steam or dieselpunk would not be correct, the word futuristic in the description makes me slightly cringe, and plasmapunk does not exist.
But here’s what’s definitely noticeable and makes me, having gone through both parts, Hotline Miami several times, a strong irritation is the inability to attach the camera to the cursor by pressing a button. Moreover, this complaint has grown due to the presence in the game of a class of sniper rifles, from which you have to shoot at opponents almost closely. Yes, this class of weapon has a number of characteristic advantages such as damage and accuracy, but in a shootout with a crowd of enemies it is much more convenient to use pistols or shotguns.
Which, by the way, got me into Dust & Neon What really caught my attention was how the weapon is able to form a playstyle around itself. By focusing on pistols, you can hide behind cover and, sticking out only for a moment, quickly shoot your opponents with accurate shots. With a shotgun, you can quite easily shoot from the hip without precise aiming, letting your enemies get as close to you as possible and not forgetting to constantly roll as if it were Souls-like.
And I haven’t yet described the main gameplay mechanics of the game, which favorably contributes to the manifestation of a feeling of vivacity in shootouts – reloading. Thanks to it, with the proper skill, you can create entire “benzene” baths from a bunch of tin scraps of enemies! The main thing is to quickly throw a cartridge into the weapon.
From now on it begins"yellow zone" bagel group, which opens Super Raft Boat Together. At its core, this is a fairly ordinary isometric shooter for cooperative play with the only peculiarity – there is a wooden raft under the heroes’ feet.
It must be expanded, strengthened, repaired and protected, because otherwise the character under the player’s control will end up in water, in which it is impossible to shoot. In addition, without expansion, not only will there be little space for avoiding dangers, but you will also not be able to “catch” and open chests floating by with resources useful for passing, so a raft is vital here.
But there are a couple of significant problems with it, one of which is non-working fortification. I sincerely don’t understand why it’s here, if any enemy breaks a fortified cage at the same speed as a regular one. No, maybe I’m just mistaken, and in fact this has a completely different function, but then the question in answer: “And what?"
The second problem arises from the mechanics of raft construction. Placing a piece of wood on an empty cell or strengthening it costs one. Something that is set on a timer and has an accumulation ceiling of 4. At the same time, the rollback of this resource is quite fast, which is why at least some tactical component is lost, turning into a banal cycle of “Shot, swapped, stuck, swapped”. At the same time, it doesn’t matter where you go with the mouse button, because quantity is important, not quality.
Not really a problem, but I’m Super Raft Boat Together I didn’t like the gunplay much. And to be even more precise, I find it not a very good solution to make fast enemies attacking from all sides in crowds, and give the player only two slow weapons to choose from. At the same time, only a bomb thrower can be called the most effective, since its projectile remains on the water after being fired.
BUT! Since I played it solo, I can’t rule out that in co-op with a crowd of friends the game performs much better and more fun.
Further sparkles yellowness We have a humorous first-person roguelike Dad by the Sword. And I have no problems with the jokes in the game: they can cause a slight stupid smile, and thank you for that. The same cannot be said about specific combat mechanics.
I really don’t want to get bogged down in describing all the complaints I have, because for this I would have to almost rewrite the entire training, so let me get by with one single example: parrying. To perform it, you need to hold the block on the RMB in the direction of the enemy’s attack, but at the moment before the attack itself, release the button, press the move button in the opposite direction and press the LMB to attack. Surprise, surprise: we have overcomplicated combat mechanics here MORDHAU! Why and for whom is unclear, but definitely not for me.
Oh yes! And the gamepad does not work in the demo version.
A group of games that evoke a slight nostalgia for the days of low resolution and high contrast. Yes, this is the only parameter that unites them all together, but you can appreciate all the genre diversity within one festival!
Looking at DreadXP in the publishers, I assumed that Amanda the Adventurer definitely one of the products of some numbered collection DreadX Collection. The assumption turned out to be incorrect, but not far from the truth: in April 2022 on the Itch website.io was held by The DreadXP Found Footage Jam, where the “pilot release” of the game was presented. By the way, I took second place.
In any case, we have a first-person horror game here with puzzles, the complexity of which cannot be judged from the demo version, to my regret. Although, knowing modern horror, I think that there won’t be any special problems. Except for one thing – you need to at least superficially understand English. It is, of course, simple here, but nevertheless.
Oh, well, I’ll throw this in at least here: in addition to the obvious reliance on animated children’s educational shows a la Dasha travelers, Amanda’s own design has a clear reference to Mickey Mouse. I’m serious, pay attention to the look and behavior of her hairstyle.
My op from Spy Bros. (Pipi & Bibi’s DX) was probably heard even on the street, because at first I played it and left a note with the caption “it has a vibe Bonanza Bros."and only now, while writing this blog, I found it useful to read its description, where it is written in white and blue "a remake of a 1991 arcade game that previously did not have a port on home consoles". Moreover: the original was an eroge, which further increased the volume of my sliding roof.
In terms of gameplay, the game does not have any strong features, except for the differences between playable siblings. The brothers have laser pistols, thanks to which they can throw opponents one by one to the lower floors or even beyond the level, which allows them to get rid of them for a short time. Although the sisters knock over all the enemies in a heap in one tackle, they do not fall to the lower floors, which causes many problems when passing. So I recommend looking at this as a higher difficulty if you decide to buy Spy Bros. (Pipi & Bibi’s DX) V Steam or on Switch.
SUPER 56 – one of those very collections with a bunch of fleeting meme mini-games for one or two actions on average, united by a single theme. So, for example, SPOOKWARE, published by the previously mentioned DreadXP, such a theme is "horror films of category B" with a corresponding set of references. IN SUPER 56 the general theme of the main plot and all mini-games can be described as “a surreal world of demons with a large admixture of Japanese”. Appropriate humor is included, so take that into account.
And although this collection has landed on my wish list, it has one thing in common with SPOOKWARE problem – it’s not always clear what needs to be done, and the timer is ticking. Yes, this problem can be solved by constantly replaying the problematic mini-game with gradual memorization of all the actions and timings, but it’s just not a fact that you will constantly stumble upon it, not to mention the success of the second or even third attempt.
Prison City with its main character again reminded me of the existence Far Cry: Blood Dragon. The only pity is that, unlike the child Ubisoft, I can’t recommend this game to everyone, even though it’s MegaMan in a wrapper Contra.
Yellow zone Prison City secured itself due to a technical problem: why the game does not perceive the keyboard as an input device during playthrough, although you can select buttons in the menu on it?! Moreover: the gamepad stick is not perceived, which is why movement is performed using the D-pad, and this is a little painful on the Xbox One controller.
In addition to all that nongambancasinos.co.uk has been said, there is a complaint about the game design, because if you are already “inspired” by the series MegaMan, then why not go to the very end and start giving the player for defeating the boss some ability or item useful for finding secrets or new paths? Without this reward, there is absolutely no difference in which location to start clearing from, which makes the player’s choice completely meaningless.
The group of adventure games turned out to be small, but quite diverse and exciting. The vibe of each does an excellent job of immersing the player in its world, even despite visual simplicity and/or gameplay problems.
To gifs from Radio the Universe I’ve been licking my lips for quite some time, since I follow the developer on Twitter. And it is for this reason that the release of its demo version was met with a fairly loud cry of “Finally!". Is it true. After a failed attempt to play Alder Choke on my laptop without a 1050 Ti, I was prepared for the worst in advance, because noise and chromatic aberration are the devil’s toy, which is very easy to cope with!
The game has started. At the same time, to my surprise, I played with minimal brakes! Yes, when chaos began to happen on the screen and the number of enemies on the screen began to approach ten in one single room, FPS sagged a little, but no more.
In general, the controls and combat system here are quite standard. If you played, for example, Hyper Light Drifter, then the situation will be even more clear. Although at first you have to come to terms with the number of lives, since the heroine from the start walks around with only one unit of health and therefore any poke is fatal. Later, the number of lives can be increased by leveling up, which I didn’t understand a little due to my poor knowledge of the English language: the same robots drop experience differently each time. Although, you get used to this quite quickly, because most of it is obtained from destructible boxes.
Overall from Radio the Universe I was pleased. Almost. So far, jumping works extremely crookedly in the game: you can jump from one edge of the location to the other; then you can’t jump from one board to another, because the heroine decides to jump down; then you suddenly change the direction of flight straight tangentially into the abyss. One could also find fault with the fatness of some opponents, but they are most often encountered as mini-bosses and then their amount of health will be reduced significantly.
Ogu and the Secret Forest – a simple and relaxed Korean Zelda clone with the charm of a summer children’s adventure. Kind, bright, funny and measured, even despite the large number of events happening to the hero. I’d go so far as to say that the emphasis is more on exploration, conversation, and solving easy puzzles than on combat. And this is very good, since the game’s combat system is primitive: one poke and that’s it. Later, of course, the ability to dance to restore health will be added, but this will only be available outside of combat.
Cynthia: Hidden in the Moonshadow – this is the same case when getting into "yellow zone" happened not because of dissatisfaction with some aspect or problems, but precisely because of the insufficient amount of time spent on it. And although in the first 10 minutes her vibe strongly reminded The Hobbit, mechanics and invisible walls is more like Tomb Raider. So I can neither recommend nor dissuade you from reading it.
It’s impossible to describe much here and I’M SO HAPPY FOR THIS! Hmm.
Two of the three games presented in this group place a heavy emphasis on story, accompanied by excellently drawn art and mini-games that I did not expect to see at all.
Robolife2 – Nova Duty
U Room of Depression there is, in my opinion, one serious drawback – she says everything directly. And it would be okay if the story itself did this, but there is a narrator standing above it, pronouncing absolutely everything shown in sentences like “This is what a depressed person feels!" and "This is how people think when they’re depressed!". And so that this information is fixed in the player’s head, he also repeats everything at the beginning and end of each chapter, once again emphasizing “look, look, look!"
Okay, I understand that most likely they will not understand me further, but. The story itself about the girl and all the mini-games made here are simple and good, although sometimes they ruin the pace of the story by dragging out here and there for the sake of the investment in Room of Depression meaning, HOWEVER! without a narrator, in my opinion it would be much better. As a last resort, we could write everything in the manner The Beginner’s Guide, but alas: what is, is.
WITH FAKE HEART everything is much simpler. Not every chapter has a mini-game, but there is enough text and interesting ideas to keep the player’s attention. Although, there is still one unpleasant bug in the demo version in the last chapter, where at the moment of the climax, English changes to Korean and after two significant events it completely ceases to perceive the keys, which is why it will not be possible to complete the chapter.
At StopGame, as I noticed, having previously studied the design of several thematic blogs and a recent selection from Alexander Bursov in the “Front Page” section, it is not customary to leave links to projects with a high age rating. And since this is the case, then for the sake of blog security, hereinafter I will make do with only screenshots. I hope for your understanding.
Moreover, in addition to the fact that Robolife2 – Nova Duty is a typical representative of the hentai novel genre, so no plot or level gameplay Fear and Hunger don’t have to wait. Yes, and I took it for consideration only in order to Dreamcutter I didn’t feel alone, simultaneously laughing at the reference to Evangelion in the screenshots section.
However, in fairness, there is still gameplay in the game and it can be divided into two parts: management and battles. What unites them is the customization of the android, in which you can replace the body, arms and head. And depending on the selected parts of the body, the robot-chan will not only change its appearance, but also its characteristics. The higher they are, the higher the earnings will be after returning from work to which it can be sent. And, in fact, that’s all that can be said about management, since even the mechanics of fatigue from similar projects were replaced with the word “probability of contracting a virus”.
But about the battles in Robolife2 I already have something to say, since they are strange here. To begin with, I don’t understand whether the characteristics of the android affect the attack performance, since even with third-level hands on enemies, a regular blow dealt the same amount of damage as before. But this is what the installed body parts and microcircuits exactly affect – the pool of active abilities during combat. And during the battle you can use them all at once in the chosen order, after which you can sit and wait for them to roll back. In theory, you should be punished for this, because to protect against incoming damage you need to use abilities of a color similar to the enemy’s attack. In practice, it’s much faster to make a combo from everything available and then just sit, heal and wait for kickbacks. Especially when you have to fight against a boss, which blocks the use of some abilities for a couple of turns.
So yeah, Robolife2 is in yellow zone mostly for the reason described above. It’s a shame when a combat system has potential depth but quickly devolves into clicking through the entire available pool of abilities on a given turn without any thought about tactics. And I’m not even writing about the fact that there are fewer battles than I would like. In addition, they are also slightly tight!
Robolife2 – Nova Duty
Robolife2 – Nova Duty
Robolife2 – Nova Duty
Robolife2 – Nova Duty
Robolife2 – Nova Duty
Being a fake fan of Lovecraft’s work, according to a minority, I simply could not help but single out everything related to otherworldly chthonism into a separate group, which could only be described as “Recent inspirations”. Someday I will wait for a direct game adaptation of my favorite stories without alien admixture, but this will happen, looking at the representatives below, by no means soon.
NecroNomNomNom: Eldritch Horror Dating – this is a very graphic visual novel, every frame of which you want to make your desktop wallpaper. And although an FPS in the area of less than 30 does not greatly interfere with “playing” representatives of this genre, seeing the slow animation of the appearance of text on the screen was slightly depressing.
On the other hand, the short story is written quite simply and pleasantly, the jokes and references make you smile, and the ending is quite in the spirit of a good motivational novel. I was satisfied.
Madshot: Road to Madness turned out to be exactly what he looks like from the outside – a time killer. The closest it could be described is Crimsonland side view.
The only serious distinguishing feature of this game compared to its analogues is the development mechanics, where you are given the choice of either taking an improvement, or pumping it up, or restoring some of your health points. The only problem is that you quickly forget about leveling up and self-healing, since the number of improvements has a much stronger effect on survival in a crowd of enemies.
Of the serious advantages in Madshot there is no meta-progression, so the coins collected during survival are used to buy only new heroes and weapons, so there is no feeling of deliberately cutting stats to prolong the time spent in the game.
The Last Case of Benedict Fox I’ve been waiting since the trailer was shown at what seems to be a presentation from Microsoft, so it was extremely surprising to find this metroidvania at the demo festival. But what was completely expected is that I didn’t get to know it personally. And it would be okay if Benedict Fox it just dropped in FPS, but no: it didn’t start at all! For this reason, I had to sit and watch its passage from my friend on discord.
And yes, this one that very moment, which I mentioned in the spoiler at the very beginning of the blog about “not all games were played by me”. Unfortunately, my laptop does not have such good hardware and condition due to some circumstances, so many major modern games do not work for me. On the other hand, those that run and run without problems on minimal settings are highly likely to run on your hardware, so consider this as a kind of quality/optimization indicator.
The combat mechanics are similar in essence to those previously mentioned in the blog Gestalt: shut up the enemy until you accumulate a powerful shot from a pistol, with the help of which the annihilation of all living things occurs. Moreover, I sat and laughed when, with its help, my friend began to disrupt the animations of attacks and the boss’s transitions to the next phases. And, unfortunately, such a trick was necessary for passing, because if in the last phase you fall under the attack of a tentacle, then you can immediately be ready for a restart, since there are no invulnerability frames while rising from the ground, and therefore any subsequent attack of the boss becomes lethal.
In addition, at the very beginning of the game, during a chase across the rooftops, a bug was caught: Raylan lost control of the controls, which is why Benedict fell into the abyss and after the inscription “You Died” the screen became completely black, although sounds could still be heard in the background after loading the checkpoint. Cured with a normal reboot.
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is in yellow zone for one simple reason: I didn’t even know that a demo version was available. Absolute silence in my information field, which is both strange and not. So I noticed it almost on the last day of the festival and I didn’t manage to get to know it at all. However, I simply cannot help but mention it, being a fan of the original Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft.
According to the filter, there were only 19 rhythm games at this festival. Of all of them, only two caught my eye and. Each of them turned out to be good in its own way. Although both have one significant drawback, which I hope will be corrected at release – the inability to change the layout for the gamepad.
But in general to visual techniques in RINA RhythmERROR you can still find fault, since on some maps the “notes” merge with the background, complicating already sometimes complex segments.
However, getting Perfect and/or Full combo tiles in the game is not that difficult, since there is no penalty for pressing buttons early. For this reason, even with very little experience in rhythm games, you can easily go through all the easy and medium maps, while on difficult ones you will have to spend time for the coveted die.
But in Blue Wednesday You can’t press it earlier than expected, as this will block the nearest note in the line. True, the game does not punish you for a couple of mistakes, since it is entirely plot-oriented. On the other hand, you can’t expect any reward for a perfectly played composition, unless, of course, the ending depends on it.
I really hope that you Blue Wednesday there will be a linear plot, since the developers in the demo version do not give the slightest opportunity for replay. Live as you finished. And if the game has several endings depending on your piano playing, then I will watch them on YouTube!
But in general, based on the number of dialogues and various mini-games in the demo Blue Wednesday could easily be moved to a group Point-and-Click games, but a group of one single game is definitely not in order. But now there is an excellent transition from one favorite to another!
Somehow it turned out that I touched the games from this group on the very last day of the festival and they all became my favorites. Real hidden gems! Just have to wait for the release.
Tourist Trap And Death Corp in many ways they turned out to be too similar: funny, cartoonish, bright and do not choke you with their riddles. At least in demo versions. However, even if the developers insert illogical riddles into the full versions, I will be ready to forgive them for this, as long as everything else remains at the same level. But whether you forgive me is another question.
But about The Gray Man I can’t say the same thing anymore. An extremely specific visual that conveys the worldview of a psychopathic maniac, and the story itself, told from a hero who is completely atypical for most games, is what captivated me in the first place. But at the same time, this project is very close to yellow zone for many objective reasons.
Unfortunately, the developers were unable to properly implement transitions in locations. In order not to give a full-fledged lecture: there is no sense of connection between the screens, even if they are in the same room, for which thanks to different angles of inclination and the absence of common “markers” that could be guided by. Only memorization will help.
The “hunger” system is also poorly implemented, due to which the screen begins to become covered with various debris a la cobwebs or mucus. I never found how to clear them or I simply didn’t understand, so I spent probably five minutes sitting and poking at the “scary” object for the second chapter in order to finally plunge the long-unreadable screen into complete darkness and see the bad ending. Moreover, this unreadability manifests itself already in a third of the occupied space, since most of the necessary points of interest and transitions are not located in the middle.
Yes, and you either need to get used to the visual style, or poke all the options in the settings, hoping for a favorable outcome. And since The Gray Man really doesn’t like it when you poke it, it will calmly restart, rolling back both saves and previously saved settings. I really hope this doesn’t last until release.
Unlike the previous game, Looking Up I See Only A Ceiling located in yellow zone because of one single thing: short. Literally start it up, look at the visual, listen to the music, poke at points of interest, read short comments from the heroine and leave it at that. No, I, of course, took it in pencil, you never know, but nevertheless, the provided content is too little to draw any conclusions.
Cats. This is the only thing that causes A Tower Full of Cats any interest. No, I do not exclude that someone may like to play representatives of the “Find the object” category, but sitting and peering at an almost monotonous image in order to select all the cats, collect all the screws and nuts is boring. And when you find out that there are hidden cats and you are not punished in any way for clicking every pixel on the screen. Definitely yellow zone.
Being a puzzle lover, it is not a problem for me to spend my time on a PC playing through some game that is more suitable for a phone or tablet. So yes, I won’t get by with four representatives of turn-based tactics in this blog.
CursedSword for me it became interesting primarily because it was made on the Clickteam Fusion engine, which I bought at one time and never did anything worthwhile with it. And good things, as it turns out, can be done quite easily with it.
Otherwise, the gameplay of the game is rich in mechanics to such an extent that at some point it even becomes boring. True, this will happen if you decide to plunge into it, instead of going through it little by little and slowly.
Howl – game from a studio known for The Lion’s Song and participated in the development Control, The Settlers , HITMAN 1-3 and porting old parts, as well as Skull and Bones. For the most part, I see, they were involved in UX and UI design. And yes, I found out about all this quite by accident while searching for an image for a preview.
Generally, Howl visually pleasing, the music is not annoying, and the tactical component allows you to replay the same situation in different ways. And returning to get all the rewards is necessary in order to fully upgrade the heroine. And on the one hand, this approach allows the player not to get hung up on one puzzle in order to collect all the rewards, but on the other hand, the pleasure of finding the perfect solution is lost a little. But this is a purely subjective claim in any case.
Dungeon Drafters quite a fun game. Not the first to combine chess, RPG and deck-building mechanics, but nevertheless, they are implemented quite organically in it. However, even so I have a couple of minor complaints. I am aware that they may seem funny, but I can’t help myself when something stings my eye.
First of all, I don’t see a single control element that could not be adapted to a gamepad without any problems. It would be enough to use arrows to move or select cards from your hand and two buttons to confirm and cancel selections. I don’t even mention going to the menu and other optional things.
Now here’s a more objective claim: Dungeon Drafters does not value the player’s time. The enemies take turns, so every time you have to look at the animations, which are beautiful, but sometimes quite long. And it would be fine if there was only one enemy, but when there are more than three of them. And on top of this, the announcements of the move between you and your opponents with a duration of more than a second finally finish off all the interest! As a result, by the end of the demo you just want to fall asleep.
IN yellow zone This group contains a game called Lord Ambermaze. The plot in it is about a typical rescue of a girl from the hands of an evil sorcerer who wants to sacrifice her. And it would be okay if the villain at least somehow took part in the hero’s journey through the labyrinth, but the only one with whom the controlled dummy fully communicates in the demo is the merchant. And then she gives more introductory information than comments on anything. As a result, this aspect of the game didn’t turn out to be very interesting.
The gameplay here is also simple, although much better than the plot. Even taking into account the presence in the description of the item “ability to manage time”, which in fact is not present in the demo version. At least I hope that the developers didn’t say that about turn-based, because opponents move at the same time as you.
The main disadvantage of Lord Ambermaze, I think is the number of rooms in the location. While exploring and passing through them, you manage to yawn several times, even despite the game’s constant throwing up something new, such as a previously unseen enemy and/or traps. Reduce the number of rooms by half and it would be much better.
A good platformer is usually called a game where the hero’s movement system is at least properly implemented. And although all representatives of this genre do not reach the heights of games about the plumber Mario, they do not cause any strong frustration, hostility or inconvenience. In addition, their strength is greater in the implemented features and visuals .
Dreamcutter
After checking out the demo Teslagrad 2 I had a desire to read the previous part. And although it arose out of curiosity, but, nevertheless, I want to find out whether these vibes were INSIDE already then, or appeared only now.
Anyway, on my own Teslagrad 2, As an interesting feature, I implemented the mechanics of magnetism, on which almost the entire level design is based: running along walls, levitation, and even throwing boxes at enemies or to build an elevator. And the presence of a fairly long dash with shots of invulnerability, coupled with the heroine’s mortality from any poke, makes most staged scenes with pursuit vigorous and dynamic.
And it’s also very. "Powerful" musical accompaniment, starting from the very start. No, the music itself is good, but I didn’t expect such episodes almost from the very start.
U Nocturnal very strong narrative vibe Prince of Persia. But to the question “Which one?"It is no longer possible to give an answer.
As a feature Nocturnal offers mechanics related to the elements of fire and its interaction with the hero, objects, enemies and darkness. Moreover, the latter is realized as something tangible, living and evil. And since the game is from Chinese developers, instead of a regular torch, the main character sets his sword on fire from various fire sources, which, in addition to the usual protection from darkness, increases damage and even allows you to be treated by absorbing fire from the blade. A combustion timer is included as a balance basis.
However, the game still has one problem: to live, you have to run and spin. Yes, it sounds funny, but take into account the fact that there is no blocking in the game, and opponents do not stop when taking damage, which makes it quite easy to get caught in the face. Especially when there is a whole crowd of opponents!
From the screenshots I thought that It’s a Wrap! – just a simulator of a video editing program. In fact, the game turned out to be a very good platformer with a very interesting gimmick, thanks to which the gameplay cycle is divided into two stages: editing and filming.
During editing, it is necessary to move blocks of events on the timeline so that during the second stage the hero can run from point A to point B in accordance with the script. Well, and accordingly, during the shooting, the player is given control of the main character and the race begins. Every death or failure is a screwed up take. Fortunately, in the demo version, almost all levels are easy to read and you don’t have to search for the right solution for a long time.
But I still have one complaint: some levels require almost 100% accuracy in both stages. So, for example, at the level “In the mouth of a volcano” not only are there a lot of objects, but you also need to hit the timing right to complete. Thank you for at least not pixel to pixel! I really hope that the release version will not be as stuffy.
Although in the demo version, apart from 80% censored by darkness, several arts and one rather lightly dressed secondary heroine were not present. And I think that this is even good, looking at the fourth screenshot on the game page in Steam, with its entire appearance reminiscent of the existence of the Axel in Harlem meme .
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the gameplay. And this is despite the very unnatural acceleration during the jump, which, nevertheless, you quickly get used to. Especially when you realize its full value in terms of quickly avoiding damage
But the most important feature Dreamcutter – the scythe of the same name in the hands of the main character, which is used not only to exterminate all malicious living creatures in the area, but also as a tool for overcoming obstacles. And although no one will be surprised by the ability to throw a weapon at a wall in order to climb it or use it to steam on air currents through a corridor with peaks on an air flow, nevertheless, this is all well implemented.
It wasn’t without problems, though. At the end, the demo throws you into an area with constantly spawning crowds of enemies without the ability to heal. It was absolutely not clear to me what needed to be done there, so in the end I decided to return to the previous zone, and. The game is broken! Instead of a transition there was a black screen, the music was layered on top of each other and there was no way to exit to the main menu. What’s even sadder is that after the restart it was impossible to continue from the checkpoint. I hope this won’t happen in the release version.
Dreamcutter
Dreamcutter
Dreamcutter
Dreamcutter
Dreamcutter
IN yellow zone platformers with us Colored Effects. And not because it’s bad, but because I’ve already seen enough games with the concept of changing colors in videos about game jams, so I wasn’t impressed. The only interesting thing about it for me is the game designer’s approach to the bosses, but nothing more.
Here are the games that I liked and that deserve a recommendation for review, but I couldn’t put them into any group by genre or feature.
Being a big fan of the detective genre, I simply could not ignore the game, the development of which I had been “following” on Twitter for a long time – Shadows of Doubt. And since it was more or less written about it here, all that remains for me is the necessary little. Due to the high demands on hardware and low FPS, even on the most minimal settings I had to watch an attempt to complete it in discord.
And the only serious problem noticed is the strangely working ventilation, which you can either reach or not. She made it very funny to watch my friend’s increasing panic during the police raid on the victim’s apartment.
So I’m waiting and I advise you!
As in the case of the previous game, the passage Greedventory I also had to watch via discord broadcast. And the reason for this was simple: serious drops in FPS. Although, to be honest, I frankly don’t understand what could be in this game that makes it difficult for Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 to process.
And it would be okay if only the brakes were the only obstacle, but also clicks on the mouse buttons are read with a slight delay, and in Greedventory quick reaction is necessary for defense and parrying, so I couldn’t even master the training!
And everything described above disappoints me a little, but the game is actually interesting. At its core, it is a kind of mixture of RPG elements with tactical Point-and-Click action. Just look at the previously mentioned parry mechanics, which not only makes it possible to inflict a lot of damage on the enemy, but also to redirect the can of healing thrown by him to your character. And I am silent about the presence of active skills obtained by putting on various accessories!
WITH Affogato I have a strange relationship. On the one hand, I see it as a game from the series Persona and reverse Tower Defense, and on the other hand, the battle with the boss of the demo survived me like a fresh lemon for cream, it turned out to be so difficult for me due to several phases and incorrect leveling. And although one gremlin who overpowered her is sitting above me now and giggles disgustingly, I still added it to my wish list and recommend it to you!
Bleak Sword DX. To some extent, a completely standard isometric slasher with one single thing that sets it apart from the rest: visual style. Well, what about our publishers? Devolver Digital and on the soundtrack by Jim Guthrie. Well, the same Jim Guthrie who made the OST for such a small and unknown game called Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. An album with remixes was later made for this OST, where even Akira Yamaoka took part, but. This is all true, by the way.
For the sake of humor: I completed 90% of the demo without using the roll, because I completely forgot about its existence and in the end it came back to bite me. The boss is not only large and not only in terms of the number of lives, but also aggressive, with three conditional phases, at each of which he begins to add new ones to his pool of attacks. And it was difficult to learn all these patterns without rolling on just lunges from a basic attack.
On the other hand, because of this, I had a question about the implementation of stamina, since it is consumed only by an attack, and you can roll around the battlefield endlessly, which makes Bleak Sword DX much easier. And although this judgment is based only on the demo version, if such a crooked I managed to die only on the boss, then I think this definitely speaks about its complexity.
But, taking into account all of the above, I am beginning to understand why the game has such a severe punishment for losing – cancellation of all leveling. Yes, here you are given the opportunity to return everything that you have accumulated, but only if, immediately after death, you go through the room in which you died. And let’s be honest, it’s unlikely that anyone will succeed in this NOT BY ACCIDENT at the very beginning of the game. And that is why I have some degree of confidence that all the rooms were designed for passage without leveling. If this is actually the case, then it’s just great: I don’t want to go through all the rooms from the very beginning for the sake of a chance to defeat some difficult boss.
Full Void reminds me Another World with its every possible way to die and the only sure way to survive. Fortunately, at least without the same need to do everything extremely accurately and almost from the very first second. So until the trigger of some event goes off, no one will push you. However, there are a couple of points where timing requirements are present and can slightly spoil the overall impression of the demo.
I never thought that I would discover a hacking mini-game from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. At least that was my first association from DROP. And in fact, even the same problem is present here, despite many of its own individual mechanics: timer.
Due to the fact that hacking occurs in real time, the faster you click on all available buttons and react to emerging situations, the faster and more efficiently you will complete the levels. Well, the faster your action button will die, of course.
However, with each new feature added to the gameplay DROP begins to acquire a unique tactical component: whether to continue hacking the server or play it safe and roll back the license check, for example. An advantage here is also an adequate leveling system in the store at the expense of money received both for completing main tasks and additional ones. You can get stuck in it, but I would like to see it, to be honest, on a phone/tablet. At least the style allows.
I never thought that I would see a full-fledged game from Laura Shigihara, known as a composer for such little-known games as: The Basement Collection , To the Moon , Deltarune , World of Warcraft , Plants vs. Zombies etc.d. Yes, Mr. Saitou is a typical visual novel on RPGMaker by analogy with To the Moon, but with its visual style, music and atmosphere it was able to not only hook me, but even make me read the dialogues. And by the way, not all games on the list managed to do this, which I even really liked.
I will repeat what I wrote in this blog under the game Elypse:
Games in this category may have interesting ideas, gameplay or visual style, but the number of problems does not cause any desire to recommend them for review, or simply the time spent was not enough for a final verdict
Ribby: The Game And Mr. Saitou in many ways, in addition to the general belonging to the genre of "visual novels on the engine RPGMaker-a", similar. At the very least, both are aimed at an adult audience, build a narrative around humor, a visual style, and highlight as the main feature the building of friendships between the main characters and other characters during their adventures. Only if Mr. Saitou is a truly bright and kind game, then Ribby tries with all his might to seem like one, which involuntarily causes first frustration, and then disgust.
I can overlook the fact that in the demo, every collected item you pick up fills the gallery with the same picture of the former US President. As well as the lack of a combat segment, which I would like to see. Not to mention the puzzle at the very end, which I completed in about five to seven seconds, without realizing either the problem or its solution. However, I can no longer close my eyes to condemning the player’s actions and reading lectures. As an example, I’ll give you the very beginning of the game, when the situation is outlined in front of the player and he is given the opportunity to make his first full choice.
Ribby the Toad wakes up in the forest in complete confusion as to how she ended up here and what happened the day before. Realizing that he cannot wait for help while sitting where he is, he takes a deep breath and. At this point, two options appear on the screen to choose from. The first one reads "stand up", which in every sense definitely looks like a true option. The same cannot be said about the second one, which has simple human written on it."Give up and die".
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a simple person: I see the opportunity left by the developers to giggle – I take advantage. And this second option proposed by the game, literally out of nowhere, with its absurdity, in addition to the banal interest in front of the red button, evokes anticipation of a possible joke, no matter how bad or obvious it may be. Only now Ribby can’t joke.
When you click on the second suggested option, the game displays "Chel. Seriously? Okay, here’s your Game Over. This is what you wanted? Jerk. Try again!", after which the exhibition starts again. And although after this I was in a complete stupor, this did not stop me from clicking there again. The second time the game asked the question "For what?"and, issuing"It’s rude", repeated the same chain of actions to launch the introductory "cutscene". And already on the third click on the second option, the whole essence of this event began to slowly dawn on me, because in addition to the question "What’s wrong with you?"the game also asks"Why are you doing this?", providing a new pair of responses: "I don’t know" And "Why then is this option here??"
If you select the first option, the game will display "I don’t know either!", and if the second – "Touché". This is where the difference in the routes ends, as the phrase "I have a plan", followed by three clicks on "Give up and die"Ribby Starts to Answer"No". On the fourth, the game finally “breaks”, displaying the inscription “Game Over” instead of the usual screenYou’re so disgusting"and commenting on this with the phrase a la"God, you’re just getting on my nerves already, but now I don’t care!" And. That’s all. No more click response.
And at that moment I had only one question in my head: why did all this even happen?? This entire event is absolutely empty, unfunny and doesn’t even affect the gameplay. The heroine literally has a status in her character file that could change depending on your choice, affecting either dialogue or combat, which, let me remind you, was not shown in the demo! But no! And this is just one example, as there is more to come!
And so you sit after completing this demo, wondering why, why and for whom this game is being made at all, and then you pay attention to the tags and the answer turns out to be fantastically simple: not for me.
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